Felice has been asking me every month, “When is ‘Ozark’ coming back?”

They’ve got those preview issues in “Entertainment Weekly,” the newspapers, all about the coming books, movies, flicks and shows.

And I don’t pay attention to a one of them. I just immediately throw them in the trash, I’m not looking forward to anything in the endless line of crap spoon-fed to us by an entertainment industrial complex. But if I find something good, I yearn for it, I can’t wait for it to return, I, like Felice, couldn’t wait for “Ozark” to come back.

And it did yesterday.

Now back when school began after Labor Day, when the seasons seemed to change on a dime, it went from hot to fall. And unless you live in Southern California, or the Sun Belt, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the light, the weather, the death of grass and trees, the eventual drop in temperature, frivolity is dead and seriousness returns.

And “Ozark” has that vibe.

It’s about the interior, not the exterior. It’s about thought, not action. It’s about…

The passage of time.

What did Rod Stewart sing, “It’s late September and I really should be back at school”?

It’s too late for that. I never lamented leaving the educational system, other than for the fact it gave order to my life. But I had too many bad instructors teaching me stuff I did not want to learn.

But I do love to learn, and wrestle with the issues. And that kind of life is hard to find outside the academy, outside of a very few institutions. I was at a party today and a parent said his daughter had to go to college to get a business degree, to have something to fall back on. I have a law degree, I can’t imagine practicing the profession again. I’d sooner end up like that “Cosby” alumnus working at Trader Joe’s, at least my brain would be my own. You see too much of life is drudgery, so we look for excitement.

And we find it in art.

That’s not what’s being emphasized, that’s not what’s being sold, but it’s the essence of the appeal, why some stuff touches you and some stuff does not, why some stuff is remembered and some stuff is not.

And the truth is there is very little great stuff out there.

But “Ozark” qualifies.

We’re four episodes in. And so far it’s not as great as last year. Some things are too convenient, like Buddy’s connection to the Mob, or Rachel getting arrested and… These aren’t really spoilers, they make no sense unless you’re watching. And what you’re watching is great actors portraying life with few options, a maze where you’re avoiding death, your goal is not to ring the buzzer, just to stay alive one more day.

And Laura Linney finally has lines in her face. But the fact she has not had plastic surgery makes her all that more believable. This is not Meryl Streep, who you can see acting, Laura really appears to be Wendy. And she uses her chops to portray a whole range of emotions and draw you to her. Regular Hollywood just gets a young babe and tells you to fall in love. But that’s two-dimensional, like porn online, but Laura Linney as Wendy…you really believe she’s a middle class Chicago housewife displaced into downscale Missouri. And she knows there’s no escape, she throws in with Marty. That’s what all men want, a supportive partner. Sure, they’ll lavish you with baubles, support your lifestyle, as long as you support them emotionally. But too many are willing to leave on a whim. Men jump ship even earlier. It’s only the professionals who stay together these days, just check the statistics. What do they say, “For better or for worse.”? Everybody expects it to be clear-sailing forevermore, but that does not happen to anybody, there are always bumps in the road. No one is owed anything, never mind the inevitable health issues…they come along when you least expect it, when everything is going good.

And Jason Bateman is a revelation, not in Linney’s league, no one could be, but he’s measured, he doesn’t overact, you can see the wheels turning inside his brain, he seems real, not some bozo excited about a heist not caring he’s gonna get bumped off in the end.

And the Snells! The rules don’t apply to them. This is the appeal to all those who followed in the footsteps, who did what was right. This is what those going to music business college don’t understand, the music business is run by people like the Snells, who think outside the box. You’re born with it. You go your own way, the opposite one, and there’s a solution for every problem, even though the average person might not employ that solution. It’s illegal? Well, am I gonna get caught?

And Ruth! I’d really think Julia Garner is this character if I didn’t see her play someone without the accent in “The Americans.”

But it’s the vibe, the cinematography, the feeling. Like the fall. And you’d better watch your step. This is when life is truly lived.

Now the funny thing is I saw no notices of “Ozark” in the paper, no reviews on Friday when it opened. But it’s more important than “Crazy Rich Asians,” the producers of which turned down Netflix to prove something at the theatre. But what they proved is not what they think. They proved that a good movie will gain attendance, that it doesn’t matter if it’s populated with Asians or any race, creed or color. They operated in the last century, now it’s all on television.

Because that’s where the eyeballs are.

We learned this three decades ago, when movie soundtracks really started to sell when the flicks hit pay cable. Like “Eddie and the Cruisers.” Not enough people see this stuff on the big screen.

And Netflix doesn’t believe in delayed gratification. You can watch the whole series all at once. A ten hour movie where characters can be developed and storylines explored. You can marinate in the show, you can become enveloped.

That’s the biggest entertainment story this weekend. Eminem’s new album will be forgotten soon, seemingly all his projects are now, no matter how good. Music is a sideshow, a collection of niches, oftentimes for the hedonistic brain dead. “Song of the Summer”? SONG OF THE IDIOTS! Listen to the lyrics, all about dissing and acquisition. All fantasy, very little real life.

And despite a storyline far from the average person’s experience, “Ozark” is all about real life.

I feel isolated so much of the time, like no one wants to listen to me, that no one wants to hear my story, that no one gets me.

And then there’s a work of art that totally gets me. My sensibility, who I am.

I don’t care about driving a fancy car, I don’t care about living in a big bad house. The trappings are irrelevant to me. I’m all about peak experiences. And they always involve people.

But it’s art that comes through for me most.

I watch “Ozark” and I believe the people involved get me, that they’re trying to achieve greatness as opposed to executing entertainment. Nuance means everything, it’s the difference between a 7 and a 10.

But we only want the 10s.

My inbox is littered with people complaining I’m shitting on something. You’ve got to love the popular, give people a break.

Not me! I’m waiting for the apotheosis. Something that captures the zeitgeist.

Did you grow up in a family? Did your parents tell you to do what you didn’t want to, limit you? Did your parents argue? Did your dad get so consumed by his work that he sometimes seemed like an automaton? Did you think you were invisible? Did you wonder how you were gonna make it through another day? Did you ever wonder where the handbook for life was?

Then you’re gonna dig “Ozark.” Because the people in it are just like you…

They’re figuring it out as they go along.

 New York City Is Briefly Labeled ‘Jewtropolis’ on Snapchat and Other Apps

I thought we were beyond this.

How long until you’re considered the other.

The Reformation, the Holocaust, they were supposed to be one time things, we were supposed to now be more civilized. But to quote Talking Heads, it’s the same as it ever was.

My father telling me about anti-Semitism, believing everybody hates the Jews. Say no, but then look at this.

Yup, click on the above article, the maps for the “New York Times,” Snapchat, Citi Bike…they were all hacked so that New York City was renamed “Jewtropolis.” Actually, there were thirty changes made, but only this one slipped through. How?

They marched on Charlottesville and the first thing they told us was the Jews were not going to replace them.

An Encino man threatens the “Boston Globe.” Reporters in Maryland are shot and killed. Meanwhile we’ve got a mean, deranged man in the White House saying the press is the enemy, and Google too…run by Jews, and Facebook, that’s right, the Jews are the root of all our problems. Even though Bezos is not a member of the tribe and neither are the heads of Apple or Microsoft.

But the Jews are the enemy.

So this is where it goes. The people need a scapegoat, and the first one they always turn to is the Jews. And no one looks out for them until they too are threatened. Just wait, it’ll happen to you.

If you’re rich and fly private you think you’re immune, but you’d better live behind a gate. Because otherwise they’re coming for you.

The holier-than-thou educated too.

Wall Street got off with a pass, but not next time. The stock market may be booming, but only for the usual suspects, mom and pop have got no better lives, you think there’s not resentment?

As for the poor and ignorant themselves, they’re getting drunk and shooting each other, that’s what the lack of gun control delivers, and the NRA and the arms manufacturers are cool with it, as long as it flows to the bottom line, as long the stockholders get rich, damn the people.

So the 2016 election revealed the divisions in our nation. Hillary Clinton may have spoken to them if she got elected, but I’m unsure if she was aware of them when she ran.

Beto O’Rourke is a punk rock playing drunk driver, he can’t serve in Congress. And that monkey can’t get a gig as the Governor of Florida, just think of what will happen if we let THOSE people in the house. And he’s corrupt, ain’t he… You can’t trust those people, you’ve got to sleep with one eye open, they’ll rob and rape and kill you, you know the Jews only care about money.

Like there are no poor Jews in the world.

But now it’s the Asians agitating for their fair share, a hardworking ethnicity that focuses on education, just like the Indians. But the whites deplore them too.

As for being deplorable, THEY ARE! What other words are you gonna use? You can’t call a spade a spade in America, you can’t speak the truth, because someone might get hurt, and the right wing lets this all go and the Democrats are so busy trying to protect the feelings of special interest groups that they can’t see the forest for the trees. It always comes down to the same thing, people need jobs, people need money, and neither party is helping them out, they’re all beholden to the corporations, they’ve taken their eye off the ball, the true problems in this country.

Although you’ve got to give Trump credit for speaking his truth to his people. Bernie Sanders tried to do that and the party shut him down. He was too far out there, and a Jew to boot. You can’t elect a Jew! But the educated millennials don’t care about race or skin.

But still…there are a lot of uneducated people in America. And educated ones who are racist. Did Trump use the “N word”? I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised, this kind of language is used in the board room all the time. It’s part of being a bro. Yup, all you collegians who think you’re immune, with your fraternities and your cabals, you’re the epicenter of movements like this. You too are gangs. And members are afraid to speak up, for fear of ostracization. They may not kill anybody, unless it’s during initiation rites, but it’s not only wannabe members they haze.

This is scary.

As for Judaism, Roger Waters is an anti-Semite. How do I know? People close to him have told me about the language he uses. But he’s for Palestinians, they’ve gotten a raw deal. And maybe they have, but what are they doing to fix their situation? War. They want Israel eliminated. And I’m not saying Israel is innocent, but don’t you get it, this is a fight to the death!

You’ll support this minority and that, but if it’s the Jews, they gotta go. They’ve got enough money, they can fend for themselves, like all those gassed and burned to death during the war.

Oh, you say it can’t happen here. IT ALREADY HAS!

Do you know when the Taliban takes over a town the buses run on time, there’s more electricity? You have to sacrifice your social mores, wear the hijab, but the system works. This is what Trump is fomenting. Fixing things for those who elected him and damn the rest, damn the right to get an abortion. Oh, Kavanaugh may not want to overturn Roe vs. Wade, but let’s hear what he has to say about Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

How Abortion Rights Will Die a Death by 1,000 Cuts

But if Kavanaugh gets bounced they’ll find another just as bad.

And you were told that this was what the election was about. But you couldn’t vote for Hillary, you voted for a non-viable third party or sat out the election. Now the joke is on you. It matters to you. For the rest of my life, and probably yours, no matter how left the country goes, the Supreme Court will be right.

That’s right. It’s positively scary.

But it comes down to hearts and minds.

Trump keeps stoking the fire of his ignorant base. Fox News too. Why isn’t there uproar against Rupert Murdoch, why does he get a pass, why aren’t left-wingers hanging in front of his house and trailing his every move, because he’s rich? Come on.

It’s frightening out there. Hell, remember that guy who said there was no anti-Semitism in Germany and then wore a skullcap and was attacked? Do you want to advertise your Jewishness in public? Meanwhile, somehow the Christians have been disabled, we’ve stolen their Christmas, we don’t say prayers in school.

And the Muslim powers are as crazy as the Christians, even more so.

And once again, they’re fed by powers that won’t say no, who feed them not caring that they’re going out of control.

It happens again and again now. On a regular basis. We thought we were enlightened. But whereas the sixties music was all about living in peace and harmony through love, today’s music is solely about money and if you don’t go to number one it’s the enemy’s fault, the corporation, the competition.

And music is just a sideshow to the big show. Blows my mind how music is irrelevant in the social sphere. Oh, it’ll get some people to wear some clothes, buy some crap, but it won’t illuminate them on the issues, won’t incite change. Everybody just wants to be a rapper or Kim Kardashian, married to a rapper as a matter of fact, one who stood up for Agent Orange, imagine if Kanye was poor?

But no, he’s another megalomaniac drunk on his own power no different from the Prez or the CEOs. They think they know.

I’ve got contempt for them, many with names you do not know.

And everybody else has contempt for me.

But at least I’m not shooting people, I’m not crippling their lifestyles.

This is the story of our time, how things went horribly wrong. Blame income inequality, blame globalization, blame the starving of schools, blame the lack of opportunity for those who are not legacies.

But no, it’s easier to blame the Jews.

Ignore sunk costs

This is the best Seth Godin podcast I’ve listened to, because most people are uninformed on the topic. The question is whether you use the past to cripple your future, whether you can handle the feedback from your peers when you say you’re going in the other direction.

It’s a conundrum. No one wants to quit and everybody wants to quit. Seth says the greatest successes are quitters. Because they’re willing to walk away from that which isn’t working for them. Whereas the successes who don’t quit go through a “dip,” where they’re unsure of their progress yet soldier on and get to the other side.

I come from the a no quit background, but I’m not sure it always works for me. Sometimes you’ve got to leave it all behind. Both physical and emotional. You’ve got all the totems of the past to remind you who you were, are they really holding you back? Then again, what’s lacking in this world is perseverance, most people give up, even before the going gets tough, and everything worth achieving is fraught with a long, lonely process with sleepless nights and questioning of one’s path.

But Seth’s point here is sometimes you’ve got to abandon the path you were on, even if you invested in it. His best example is scoring the last two tickets to the Friday night movie and then running into someone who offers you great “Hamilton” tickets for free. Yes, you’re gonna blow thirty bucks, but you’re gonna end up with something worth much more, can you make the leap?

This is something I see too often in music. Since you were a musician, you must remain a musician. Believing if you just work hard enough you’ll make it. But oftentimes this is not true, but if you give up you’re fearful everybody will excoriate you, but at what price happiness? Figuring out who you want to be and executing on that is what makes you happy.

The people who should listen to this podcast most are those who followed in the prescribed footsteps and can’t get out of the pathway. I know a few lawyers who love what they do, but most I know don’t. But they went to law school, they paid their dues, they’re getting paid a certain amount, they can’t step out into the unknown.

Even worse are those in finance. It’s a dreary business for most, yet they cannot give up the cash. But it’s to their own personal detriment.

I guarantee you’ll listen to this podcast and contemplate your choices. Ask yourself what you can free yourself from. What you can abandon, who you can be.

It’s very short, less than half an hour. My only complaint is that’ it’s TOO short. I would love to hear Seth riff on this for an hour or two.

On Apple

Cherry: A novel

The Acknowledgements is the best part.

You’re not gonna want to read this. Our country is all optimism all the time, except when it comes to the government/political situation. Everyone’s got hope, everyone’s a winner…

But it don’t really happen that way at all.

“Cherry” is a buzz book, but there’s no buzz about it. No one telling me to read it, no one talking about it. Because it’s a hard read. Not because of lofty language, not because of density, but because of story.

I hate it when people say they hate art because there are no relatable characters. That’s what ruined art for me, when Spielberg took over and it became about artifice, when it all worked out in the end. That’s not the way it really is. One false move and you can be forgotten. Then there are those who’ve got no chance to begin with, like Arnold, the son of a hooker. Used to be we wanted to give you a leg up, now all you get is lip service. You had health care but somehow it penalized the corporations and the rights of those wanting to be free so they’re taking that away now too. You’re a grifter, ripping off the country with its food stamps and welfare payments. You need to go into the army, be a hero, make a man of yourself, stand for something.

Like Nico Walker.

A soft boy from the upper middle class, educated in a private institution, he joined the corps, he became a medic in the Army, and he’s yet to recover, to this day.

You see horrors worse than those alluded to by Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now” You think everything’s a fantasy, then you’re confronted with real life.

And it sucks.

You don’t know who to be. School seems phony, with all those overachievers trying to get a job in middle management. And those you’ve never encountered before running the world. We hate the rich, not those who inherited wealth, but the techies who started from scratch. They dropped out of Harvard, you couldn’t get in. They get to wear their street clothes like the rock stars of yore, you have to dress up to sell crap. And they write books and tell us they know everything, as if they knew anything about real life. And the media establishment lauds them, writers feed on this crap, it makes them feel important, that they’re championing winners.

But the truth is everybody’s got something to hide, even me and my monkey.

So Nico Walker survives Iraq, many of his compadres do not, and he comes back to Ohio and…

Flounders.

Does dope.

He feels dead inside, he just can’t get it together. You might have felt this way too, but you can’t admit it, unless you’re already famous and doing a mea culpa. Celebrities get to say they’re depressed, that they’ve triumphed, yet no one pays attention to those in the crowd, burdened by their troubles.

That’s what they don’t tell you growing up, you’re flawed. And you’re gonna spend your whole life either fixing those flaws or living in a deranged world of your own making where your flaws constantly get in your way. Like the person who can’t hold a job, the one who constantly gets divorced, it’s never their problem.

But it’s Nico Walker’s problem.

So I bought the book because I was going on a trip, I always load my Kindle up with books before I leave home, the worst fate in the world is to be stuck with nothing to read.

And I read “The Family Tabor” on my flights, enjoyed it, but you might not, it might be too psychological for you. What if the perfect aren’t so? That’s the question the book asks.

And when I got home I dove into “Cherry.”

I won’t tell you what that means, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’m sure, like me, you’ve got no clue.

And at first it’s hard to get into. Robbing banks. Doing dope.

And then…

He goes to Iraq.

This ain’t the movie war. Nothing really happens, nothing is really achieved. You work outside your purview and don’t get to say no and your superiors are lying and you’re running on empty, but you could get your ass shot off, your whole body blown up, your latex gloves could melt as you’re picking up the pieces, this really happened.

And then I couldn’t put the book down. Tried not to stay up all night reading it. Until…

He came home.

You knew he was gonna, otherwise the Prologue made no sense.

But then you’re just at the middle of the book, and from there…

Nico and Emily do drugs. She’s in graduate school, he’s trying to stay in school. And they’ll do anything they can get their hands on and they run out of money and they run out of dope but there’s no redemption, Nico’s hollow inside, he’s a prick. An admitted one.

He treats women badly, is dishonest, but he’s not famous so no one is outing him, he gets away with his behavior, but as much as people hate him, he hates himself more.

And the dope culture is peopled with incompetents, who are screwing up when they’re not ripping you off.

But this is the life you chose.

And it’s this life that is real.

That’s what the Acknowledgements are all about, where Nico tells the story of how “Cherry” came to be. He was in jail, corresponding with someone who turned out to be a publisher who ultimately sold the rights to Knopf.

And you don’t always know what’s going on, but you do.

This is what rock and roll used to be. When the musicians were on their own path and didn’t care about mainstream society, never mind corporations and money. Today it’s all about giving people what they want, and if you’re not a winner, you’re a loser and you’re ignored, so people fake it. They buy the clothes, go to Vegas, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

But on the inside…

P.S. You know every word of this book is true, that he’s tangled up in blue, they call it a novel, but…